Do you hear banjos?

Pass Max Patch, taking a right at Rattlesnake Gap, in Cherokee National Forest and bouncing down the narrow 4WD necessary road/trail to Wolf Creek Falls was one of the toughest roads we’ve ever taken to a waterfall. After following directions and turning right at the sorta “T” in the road once on Rattlesnake Gap, we only met one other vehicle on the way to the falls. Thankfully we met him right near the “T” so there wasn’t a lot of backing up to do, as there are not a lot of places for two vehicles to pass.

There were trees down all over the place, huge potholes, missing road, water in the road and on the trail. Hubby wished he’d brought a chainsaw and I regretted not wearing a sports bra for this ride. I can’t remember where I read it but someone said you’d feel like you were making a Subaru commercial.

Hubby ended up driving all the way to the surprisingly nice gravel turn around right above the falls because tire tracks showed that someone else had driven there before us. This worked for me, as that puddle ahead would’ve been the first one we had to walk through. This is NOT a road for vehicles without 4WD and high clearance as it got narrower with even more ruts and large rocks.

From this nice gravel turn around that was not expected after what we’d driven thru over and under, we got to the top of the falls first. It had rained and there were leaves on the wet rocks so I stood back from the edge and held my camera out to get a shot. I was grateful for my wrist strap and fully articulated LCD screen. Then we took the short walk down the trail to the base. Wolf Creek Falls had so much green on it and was so secluded and beautiful. If it hadn’t taken so long to get there, hadn’t been hopefully inappropriately named Rattlesnake Gap, and if we were not starving, I would’ve like to just sit and enjoy it but like we often do we see, I shoot, and we go.

When we left, we followed directions, I think from multiple sites that I’d printed off back when we went to Max Patch. We took a left over the creek once back on Rattlesnake Gap but after so long hubby decided the directions were not correct and we turned around (yes on this narrow road in a full-size extended cab super duty F250) and went back the way we had come.

On this return ride, we passed a motorhome pulling a car on Max Patch road, that seemed like a wide city road after what we’d just travelled. We saw her in the middle of the road not moving and pulled way off the road so she could pass. She didn’t move. Hubby got out to see if they were okay and find out why they were not passing us since we had less than 2′ of the truck left still in the road. She said she couldn’t pass on her side of the road and wanted us to cross over to the wrong side so she could hug the bank and us drive on the wrong side closer to the edge. Hubby knew she had plenty of room there and asked if she knew the road got worse. She said she knew more than him and was going to a campground. We obliged her demand, but I wonder since she couldn’t drive on the best part of the road if she ever made it to her destination. I’m guessing it was the Round Mountain Campground Rich and Cindy Stevenson talk about on their ncwaterfalls site.

To top off this entire morning, hubby had a celiac flare-up and even though he felt pretty cruddy he still took me, saying if he made himself go to work, doing labor for others, he could go to this waterfall with me. Just so y’all don’t think I’m a horrible wife, I did offer to postpone until he felt better. He spends most of his days in pain with his back and neck and then when he gets glutened or his celiac acts up he just suffers through and hopes the next day is better. I’m am totally tired of my shoulder being an issue, and can’t imagine more than half-a-lifetime in everyday pain.

I have started working on my waterfall list going thru Kevin Adams 3rd edition of NC waterfalls. Falls I’ve been to, falls I plan to go to, and ones on my bucket list that I don’t know if I’ll ever feel equipped to find. After autumn has shed its colorful display, I’ll go back to it and spend some more time on it.

I have Kevin Adams waterfall book out almost weekly. I’ve heard him speak but he wouldn’t know me if we met on a trail even though he’s answered many a question online for me. For someone who shares so much of himself, knowledge and love of waterfalls and photography- he now needs a hand. The goal set by his stepdaughter has been exceeded, but the monthly expenses afterwards are costly.

This is Scott Kelby’s 11th WORLDWIDE Photo Walk. You go to the site, put in your zip code and find a walk near you. If you want to participate in the contest you must be signed up before walk day. The one I’m leading this year is at Jackson Park for their Farm City Day. I know we’ve done that before but our area is kinda limited on choices that meet their criteria and appeal to the most people.